The July/August issue of Foreign Policy includes a piece by George B.N. Ayittey that lists what he designates are the world’s worst dictators. The media is jumping all over his unapologetic account. Kim Jong Il places at number one in these “top 23,” and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Iran) is at number eight, but Raúl Castro is given a spot on the list, too, at number 21. This, says the Miami Herald, means Fidel’s record still beats out Raúl’s (or as they put it, “Raúl still cannot compare with Fidel”) on such measures, as he made 15th place in a similar list put together by Parade in 2006, the last full year he was in power on the island, and made 13th the previous year.
Parade on Fidel, 2006: “Fidel Castro moved into his 47th year as the leader of Cuba, continuing his record as the longest-reigning dictator in the world. He seems to be telling his people that two generations have passed and no one in Cuba is worthy of taking his place.”
Foreign Policy on Raúl, 2010: “Afflicted with intellectual astigmatism, the second brother Castro is pitifully unaware that the revolution he leads is obsolete, an abysmal failure, and totally irrelevant to the aspirations of the Cuban people. He blames the failure of the revolution on foreign conspiracies — which he then uses to justify even more brutal clampdowns.”
